Adjustable plier comparison
Comparing three types of pliers
In this Cool Tools video, I’m going to show you three slightly different types of adjustable pliers. Links for all three options are in the video description, and by picking any one of them up, you’re helping to support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.
For the longer than I care to admit, the main pliers in my house were basic pliers with a notch for a bigger or smaller grip. If this still describes where you’re at, I’m going to walk through some other options and why you may want to pick them up. If you’re already a plier pro, feel free to add your two cents in the comments.
After stripping a few bolt heads and needing to work on some household plumbing, I bought these adjustable tongue and groove pliers. These are very common, you can get them for around $15.
Opened all the way up, you can adjust the width of the mouth, and when you close it, the two sides lock into one of the grooves on the handle to keep that particular fit.
The three things that are great about these:
1. The mouth opens up wide enough to adjust plumbing. You need to tighten a threaded washer on your bathroom sink — these are perfect.
2. The long, flat face of the jaws and the incremental adjustment provides a good enough fit for bolt heads and bigger hex nuts. If it’s too much trouble to find the right wrench, this usually gets the job done without stripping what you’re working on.
3. The long handles provide some real leverage you can work to your advantage. If you’re working on something old and rusty, these are fantastic.
What’s not great is that they’re too big for smaller projects, and the adjustment is a somewhat fiddly two-handed thing that can be a pain if you’re working on a lot of different sized things.
For something a little different, I’ve got these self-adjusting Robogrip pliers. These were about $23 on Amazon — not cheap, but they put my basic pliers out of a job. They’re super handy for everyday stuff.
The cool thing about these is that as they crunch down on the thing you’re grabbing, they’ll automatically lock in for a pretty secure grip. So, they’re easy to use one handed — they get rid of the fiddly aspect of the tongue and groove pliers. And the size is right in that sweet spot where it can handle big stuff fine and still be useful for small projects too.
These also come in a bigger size, or with a flat jaw instead of a curved one, but the 7-inch curved jaw version has been good for me.
Finally, let’s talk about Vise Grips. Now, I am late to the Vise Grip thing. They come in wide range of sizes and there are some really unique offshoots with special applications.
These are a relatively small, 4-inch long-nose model recommended by Jamie Windham through a Cool Tools review. Their superpower is that not only can they be adjusted to fit what you’re working on, but they’ll lock in place when you fully squeeze down on them.
And once they’re locked, if you really want a super tight fit, you can tighten the tension screw at the bottom by hand or with a hex wrench.
These, for me, have replaced my needlenose pliers. Because how many times have you chewed up the small thing you’re trying to grab just on the process of gripping it over and over again? This way you just lock it in once and turn the whole thing.
They’re also great as a little mini vise, either for glueing up small things, or as a third hand for soldering something up. They’re great on the end of a cable or rope if you need to tension something and want a solid grip. They’re great, and when you want to release the vise, you just pull apart the handles with a little force.
The downside to these is that fiddling with the thumbscrew does take some patience nearly every time you use it. Also, unless you cover the ends in a rubber sleeve or gaffer tape, it will bite into material just like vise would.
So that’s it, just an overview on some adjustable plier options in case you’re ready to branch out from something basic. Of course there are hundreds I didn’t cover here, so if you have a favorite, be sure to leave a comment.
04/26/18(Cool Tools has a YouTube channel with many more tool reviews — editors)
